Poetry: Vultures
Preparing my morning coffee, out the kitchen window I see how a needed rain has bathed our thirsty earth. Up on the hill, an unexpected sight— seven carrion-seeking birds perched…
Poetry: Plumeria
I have just settled in with a blanket, cat on my lap, book of poetry in my hand, when I hear the bells ring. Four Tibetan brass bells, bought at…
Poetry: Three Ekphrastic Poems
Kevin Patrick Sullivan has written these poems to pieces in the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art’s permanent collection. Let the Light Shine after a photograph by James Marx This…
Poetry: Bird-Voyeur
At the rookery, cormorants converse, a cacophony of baby-birds including egrets and herons calling for fish, more fish, more fish. They return yearly to nest over, under, and by each…
Poetry: A Teacher’s Nightmare
The other night I had a dream, strange and disturbing. I was in a class, literature maybe; the unseen teacher shared a text with us, told us to go home…
Essay: Monster Mash
Halloween is upon us. Prepare to be assaulted by all kinds of vampires, werewolves, and other ghost-like creatures that cloves of garlic, religious crosses, and even silver bullets aren’t likely…
Poetry: Full Moon Over Elfin Forest
The opportunity for new insight can so easily pass us by— that potential opening to life lost. With this in mind, I pull on long johns, then sweatpants, turtleneck layered…
Poetry: Subtle Seasons
A scrap of paper tucked in a drawer reads “seasons are subtle on the Central Coast.” I wrote that note to myself several years ago. It was mostly true, and…
Poetry: Two by Kevin Patrick Sullivan
Your Gift There are images maybe traces of tenderness a quiet breathing this shared breath waking next to you The Bridge Come from under the sun Leap into the…
Video: Writing Local History. That Isn’t Local.
Writing Local History—That Isn't Local is a kind of primer. Because no matter how much we might disagree—we are all connected as Americans—"local" history never really is just "local."